Just another WordPress.com site

Do Professional Athletes make too much money? April 23, 2012

When I was a little girl, for the longest time I wanted to be a professional athlete. I wanted to be famous, be able to do something I loved, and get paid lots and lots of money for doing it. As I got older, I realized how unrealistic this dream really was. To be paid all of that money an athlete must be top notch and one of the best players in the league. Now the question arises of do athletes get paid too much money, despite their being extremely talented and gifted in a sport? I would say they do get paid way too much money. All they do is play a sport. They don’t save lives, they don’t protect people, and they don’t teach and take care of children. Each professional sports league has a minimum amount of money that they can pay each player. For example the minimum salary for the NFL in 2010 was $325,000, the MLB was $400,000, and the NBA was $457,588. The average salaries of these leagues are of course much higher. Teachers on average make between $35,000 to $60,000. Doctors and physicians make an average of $132,000 to $323,000 depending on their field. Police jobs make an average of $41,000 a year. Professional athletes of the NBA, NFL, and MLB make more money than people who helping to add to society and doing jobs that make living in today’s world possible. Some people will argue that athletes have trained hard and put a lot of time and effort into their sport and because of that they deserve to earn a lot of money. Mihir Bhagot, a Bleacher Report analyst, said, “While I do understand that making it into the pros is not an easy thing to do, and that it takes a tremendous number of hours of hard work and dedication every day to earn a job in professional sports, these people do nothing more than entertain the general public.” In general I do believe that professional athletes are overpaid and they should not be making as much money as they do.